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Here Come the Hobgoblins

Friday, July 8, 2016

One of my favorite moments in the development of any Pathfinder Battles set is the day when WizKids brings in the paint master and I get to see the figures for what amounts to the first time. Sure, I've carefully selected the reference images and approved digital sculpts, but it's not until you can actually hold the figures in your hand that they truly become "real." And oh, boy did we have a "real" experience looking at Deadly Foes!

Incidentally, the set has officially moved to a NOVEMBER release. I am told by reliable sources that it is unlikely to slip further.

The theme of Deadly Foes is high-utility monsters, humanoids, and heroes, and the feeling in the room as each of the painted figures was that this may be one of our best and most useful sets yet.

This week I'd like to show off three figures from the set: Hobgoblins all!

Up first is the Hobgoblin Archer, a nice rank-and-file ranged weapon attacker. Simple. Effective. Deadly. The Hobgoblin Archer is a Medium, common figure.

This guy is the bomb. The Hobgoblin Alchemist is a Medium, common figure.

Last up this week is the Hobgoblin Cleric, another Medium, common figure.

Thank you Eric. Unless I am much mistaken, I had suggested all three of these in the past. Glad to see that the Monster Codex helped make these a reality. My only quibble is about the rarity of the alchemist. Would have preferred a more martial type as a common instead, with the alchie as an uncommon. But I understand how rarities work. Hopefully that means the martial one (there is another, right?) looks great.

Nice looking hobgoblins there! All common so easy to get an instant horde. Hats off to you Erik. The November shift is fine by me, makes the set feel like a birthday present, although I doubt it will reach me by the 17th ☹️. If we get another hobgoblin I hope its the samurai looking warlord from the monster codex, that a very nice piece of art. Very excited for this set, spoilers for the rest can't come far enough...

Any chance of doing more with the unpainted metal line with Reaper? These are nice and all but I'm a painter and I'm not as fond of blind random packs. All that ever seems to get added to Reaper's line are the iconics and one or two npc's from the adventure paths. The black dragon mini has been in limbo for ages. What's up?

It's kind of obvious but nonetheless seems unusual amongst mini-makers for some reason - I really, really appreciate the fact you keep the various "groups" looking similarly styled. It really adds to the look when you plonk down a gang of monsters who actually look like a gang.

I'm guessing that it is much harder than we can imagine to get continuity of "gangs" across sets. It is indeed rare when we get pieces that continue to match, the Pathfinder Goblins being the best and longest running example. I'm quite happy that Paizo and Wizkids continue to make efforts to group gangs in each set. Current Hobgoblins included! I do hope there is at least one more coming in future previews.

I don't think we will get something else till november.
These things have a long preparation time and with the Rusty Dragon Inn being reprinted in july and D&D set 5 coming up, i imagine it would already have been advertized somewhere.

That said, i think we will get the Unpainted line in december and the next PFB set could maybe come as early as april 2017. :-)

Any chance of doing more with the unpainted metal line with Reaper? These are nice and all but I'm a painter and I'm not as fond of blind random packs. All that ever seems to get added to Reaper's line are the iconics and one or two npc's from the adventure paths. The black dragon mini has been in limbo for ages. What's up?

Reaper has more stuff in the pipeline! I approved eight figures at the GAMA Trade Show a few weeks back, and they look fantastic.

I think the transition to focusing on Bones and the fulfillment of all those Kickstarters knocked back a lot of Reaper's new minis plans, but they are moving forward and I expect new product to start flowing soon.

Some of the less common races especially ratfolk, elemental kin, wayang
Spriggan; large and small.
Shadow giant using ISB art (hmmm I said that a few times now I think)
Ash giant,
A second Marsh giant using the art from the Giantslayer AP.
Dimensional shambler,
Sprite or similar small winged fey.
Duergar - themed like the hobs or bugbears
Troglodytes - again themed
Kytons - could also be themed with the 4 various sizes types.

As others have said its these themed subsets that work so well, especially these hobgoblins.

Technically I'd also like to see some of the themed minus fleshed out even more. Another ogre or two the same size as the kreegs, another Orc or two, another bugbear or two that scale in with the lurker.

It would be nice to see an additional sea devil or two in scale with either the base one or the four armed one, probably the basic, quite large seas devil from Skull and Shackles.

Even 1-2 more fire, hill and frost Giants to give a bit more table variety, and uniformity - I like the frost goants we have but they vary a little too much in look to really work well together, same with the fire giant King (although when I repainted his Armor gold he was a better fit)

Although I think the figures look cool I just can't get my mind around these figures being an actual hobgoblin? If I do pick up a few I'd have to think of something else to call them. To me they almost appear undead. I guess I'm just old school and used to my old hobgoblin sculpts.

Hey Cat-thulhu, thanks for asking. Yes, it is the coloration but also the "beefiness" (yes not really a word but I'm sure you get my point). I know WotC made them red to brown, but I always looked at hobgoblins a bit more rotund and/or musculature. Maybe it's just me. Here they could pass for gray skinned humans with elven ears.

Beastiary 1 art makes them look a bit more primitive than the MonsterCodex art.
B1 Fighter and the archer as common and the other 2 as uncommon plus one rare commander would have been perfect. But the colors are probably too simple to justify higher rarity.

By all means, spriggans large and small!
Shocker lizards. I can't believe no one's ever made a shocker lizard. Talk about a great common!
A well-sculpted, well-painted dryad would be great, maybe using the art from the 2nd Kingmaker adventure. The new dryad from WotC is an embarrassment, and the old Black Woods Dryad was not what most people think of when they think "dryad".
Again, by all means, more plants. This is the least well-represented class of creatures in pre-paints.
Urdefhans and morlocks. They're a major feature of Serpent's Skull, and they're totally unrepresented in minis.
The soul eater from Kingmaker 3 could be cool.
Ratfolk and grippli. Kitsune. They'd all be very popular.
How about Blackjack? You already have a sculpt with Reaper, right? Plague doctors? Please, please, pretty please, Red Mantis Assassins? Maybe a summonable giant red praying mantis to go with them? (You could then do a green one as a promo, or vice versa.)
A gypsy with a harrow deck could be cool. Especially if could serve plausibly for a harrower as well.
I'd still like to see a PF male drider as well, since they have a different look than old D&D driders.
And thanks as always for asking what we'd like! :-)

2nd more dressings. Also more mounts horse and dog were great but a few of oddballs even if rare would be cool. And figures to represent the pc races. Grippli kitsune way yang those guys please fill in that sort of thing.

I would suggest Red Mantis Assassin (both male and female) and Grippli Hunter and Swordsman, but I assume they are already in this set and are being previewed next week.

And Cleanthes is right, tracking down the old D&D mini large sized Giant Mantis is awfully hard, would enjoy a new one. Giant Vermin as a whole are woefully represented considering how often they crop up.

Shocker lizards. I can't believe no one's ever made a shocker lizard. Talk about a great common!
A well-sculpted, well-painted dryad would be great, maybe using the art from the 2nd Kingmaker adventure. The new dryad from WotC is an embarrassment, and the old Black Woods Dryad was not what most people think of when they think "dryad".
Again, by all means, more plants. This is the least well-represented class of creatures in pre-paints.
Urdefhans and morlocks. They're a major feature of Serpent's Skull, and they're totally unrepresented in minis.
The soul eater from Kingmaker 3 could be cool.
Ratfolk and grippli. Kitsune. They'd all be very popular.
How about Blackjack? You already have a sculpt with Reaper, right? Plague doctors? Please, please, pretty please, Red Mantis Assassins? Maybe a summonable giant red praying mantis to go with them? (You could then do a green one as a promo, or vice versa.)
A gypsy with a harrow deck could be cool. Especially if could serve plausibly for a harrower as well.
I'd still like to see a PF male drider as well, since they have a different look than old D&D driders.
And thanks as always for asking what we'd like! :-)

Btw, for what it's worth, I think I just got my hands on a couple of new PF Battles promo repaints in advance of official release, though I won't know for sure till they arrive in the mail! It'll be fun to see if I'm right.

Any chance of doing more with the unpainted metal line with Reaper? These are nice and all but I'm a painter and I'm not as fond of blind random packs. All that ever seems to get added to Reaper's line are the iconics and one or two npc's from the adventure paths. The black dragon mini has been in limbo for ages. What's up?

Reaper has more stuff in the pipeline! I approved eight figures at the GAMA Trade Show a few weeks back, and they look fantastic.

I think the transition to focusing on Bones and the fulfillment of all those Kickstarters knocked back a lot of Reaper's new minis plans, but they are moving forward and I expect new product to start flowing soon.

That's great to hear. I hope we get a few more metal monsters and humanoids, particularly of some of the more unusual Pathfinder races, like Wayangs and the elemental people, sometime soon. :)

With the suggestions others are giving I think Paizo and WizKids could come up with a really nice forest or wilderness theme for a set. I tend to use darker natured fey and have seen others do the same. So even traditionally ally type figures could see some really good use.

Update on the promos I think I got: I do in fact now have 2 repaints of existing minis in hand that have not yet been announced, but I think they're misprints: the bases still have the name and set info for the original minis in the Rusty Dragon set. So I suspect these were rejects that somehow got into the hands of an Ebay seller. Anyway, it'll be nice to find out what I should really call them!

Update on the promos I think I got: I do in fact now have 2 repaints of existing minis in hand that have not yet been announced, but I think they're misprints: the bases still have the name and set info for the original minis in the Rusty Dragon set. So I suspect these were rejects that somehow got into the hands of an Ebay seller. Anyway, it'll be nice to find out what I should really call them!

One of them was a Kobold Devilspeaker, repainted with white scales and a blue robe. The other was a Guard, repainted with a blue uniform, probably to match the City Watch minis we've already received.

Interestingly, the seller I bought from was domestic, so it only took a few days for the minis to reach me. I'm surprised I got them as cheap as I did, too; they went for $1 each. I was sure some of the other minis addicts around here were going to see them and bid them up!

Interestingly, the seller I bought from was domestic, so it only took a few days for the minis to reach me. I'm surprised I got them as cheap as I did, too; they went for $1 each. I was sure some of the other minis addicts around here were going to see them and bid them up!

Thank you for the info, these sound cool and congratulations for getting them for that price. :-)

I´m curious about a look at pictures of the paint masters but i don´t think we will see them yet.

Maybe a side by side comparison of one mini that translated very well?

Hopefully we´ll get another mini reveal tomorrow - with D&D kinda copying the "terrain set" from Pathfinder next year, i would like to see what some of the other dressing pieces (besides the great book on a podest) are. ;-)